Ch.190Blabbermouth, Looking This Way (1)

Right after disposing(?) of two troublesome S-rank individuals to an unnamed Commander.

“Commander, construction has just been completed!”

“Oh?”

—————————————-

<<<Emergency Starship Repair Facility Construction Complete!>>>

—————————————-

I was truly happy to hear that the base upgrade I had forgotten about while dealing with prisoner processing issues was finally complete.

At last, the time had come to upgrade the base to level 7.

However, there was one major problem here…

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<Base Level 7 Upgrade>

<<<Required Resources: 500,000 Minerals, 28,500 Rare Resources>>>

<Features Unlocked Upon Upgrade>

˪<Additional Docking Facility Unlocked>

˪<Additional Resource Warehouse Construction Available>

˪<Air Command Headquarters Construction Available>

˪<Fleet Association Construction Available>

˪<Special Design Management Bureau Construction Available>

—————————————-

‘Arggghhhh.’

As you can see, upgrading the base now required over 500,000 minerals.

And the rare resource requirement had jumped fourfold from level 6…

“Jessica, how many resources do we currently have?”

“Since you’ve only been producing resource mining ships and transport destroyers, we currently have about 89,000 minerals and 12,100 rare resources, Commander.”

“Oh…”

“But since you deployed the resource transport destroyers yesterday, our daily resource income should exceed 15,000 starting today.”

For our base to level up and spam awesome battleships and carriers in the current situation…

We’d need to tighten our belts and run only resource fleets for at least a month.

‘Ugh, my god.’

If it weren’t for that damned Central Zone invasion, we would have naturally upgraded to level 7 by now and been living comfortably.

‘Sigh, damn it, what’s the point of whining about it now?’

Continuing to whine about things that had already happened wasn’t what a real man would do.

So I shook my head to clear my thoughts and decided to shut up and focus on accumulating resources.

==========

And so, after simultaneously building four patrol ships at the shipyard, we were now frantically constructing only resource transport destroyers.

Meanwhile, the large shipyard was busy repairing the captured light carrier that had somehow survived being used as bait.

As always, I was enjoying a relaxing afternoon, dozing off after clearing daily quests and having a pleasant meal, when…

-Beep!

-“Oh Commander? Is it okay to call you now?”

“Is that Griyanar? What’s going on?”

-“Remember that test subject… no, no, I mean that Superhuman you gave me?”

“Ah.”

Receiving Griyanar’s call, I nodded as I recalled “Smeragi,” whom I had decided to leave alone until her friendliness reached +100.

“If you’re talking about Smeragi, I remember her, but why?”

-“Her modifications are complete now, so I was wondering if I should bring her over? Or would you like to come see?”

“…Hmm.”

I distinctly remember telling her to just increase the friendliness level, so why was Griyanar casually inserting the word “modifications” into our conversation?

It was truly incomprehensible, but I was curious nonetheless.

And since I didn’t have anything pressing to do at the moment…

“I’ll come see her then, especially since I don’t have anything else to do right now.”

-“Got it~ I’ll prepare everything so it’s easy for you to see~”

-Click!

“Jessica, let’s go meet our new companion.”

“Yes, Commander.”

As always, I decided to head toward the Biology Research Lab with Jessica, who had been standing by.

Actually, it had evolved(?) and was now called the “Nest of Life.”

Of course, as we walked together, Jessica and I couldn’t help but harbor some complicated feelings.

“Commander, did you really give Griyanar complete authority over this?”

“Well, yes. There’s no point in meddling when there’s nothing we can do anyway.”

Regardless of such anxieties, the system structure didn’t allow users to interfere even if they wanted to.

So as I said, there wasn’t much we could do despite our complicated and anxious thoughts.

“I’m not saying you’re wrong, Commander, but…”

“That’s right, and besides, no matter how much of a mad scientist Griyanar is, she wouldn’t create something truly bizarre, would she?”

“…She wouldn’t create something bizarre?”

Hearing my words, Jessica’s expression momentarily crumbled.

But with my following explanation, she nodded in understanding.

“Looking at the gallery, some Commanders team up with their mad scientists and grotesquely modify their Superhumans.”

“…Oh.”

Among the disturbing images I had to delete after receiving reports, there was someone who had replaced a pretty girl’s lower body with some kind of grotesque octopus-like monster.

Then they posted content showing that creation attacking other Superhumans and doing all sorts of things.

And there were crazy people who, instead of fighting as they should, conducted strange biological experiments on their own or other clan members’ Superhumans.

Compared to them, Griyanar, who mostly just adds or reduces tails, breasts, or tentacles, could almost be considered angelic.

Of course, seeing my attitude, Jessica thought for a moment before responding.

“Commander, I think your threshold for what’s considered disgusting has significantly increased due to your role as a community moderator.”

“What… did you say?”

“I think you’ve seen too many bizarre things from other Commanders whose minds have been corroded from seeing strange things almost daily.”

“What.”

She was indirectly suggesting that my aesthetic sense had become twisted.

I felt like I’d been hit in the head.

While we were talking, we finally reached the entrance of the “Nest of Life.”

As the entrance—or rather, the mouth—opened and we stepped inside…

“Oh, it’s Commander and Jessica! You came quickly!”

“…”

“…”

“This being right here is the SSS-rank Smeragi that the Commander entrusted to me!”

I remembered Smeragi as a typical cat-girl with an assassin-like outfit who would go “nya nya.” Now she was floating in a semi-transparent test tube.

“Nyanya-nyanyat, red bean paste filling good!”

“Just wait a moment, there’s still some medication in her brain and spinal cord, and her language system is a bit twisted.”

“…”

“Zigguguuug, gugu-beop-gu!”

“Hey!”

“Unggoooooh!”

Beyond having mysterious pipes, wires, or tentacles—whatever they were—attached all over her body from the test tube’s internal systems,

There were things plugged into her ears, making her spout strange words.

And seeing small tentacles wriggling from those ears,

I immediately turned to Jessica beside me and boldly spoke.

“Jessica, it seems my aesthetic sense is still normal after all.”

“…Pardon?”

“Because I find that disturbing.”

Of course, Griyanar, who was giving “Smeragi” a new injection, immediately showed anger at my reaction…

“Disturbing?! I upgraded her physical abilities along with sufficient friendliness!”

“I’m glad, Commander, that you still have a human heart.”

No matter how much our Professor Griyanar protested,

Anyone would shake their head seeing Smeragi’s distorted appearance.

So I shook my head at Griyanar, who was for some reason injecting an unknown biological substance that was covering Smeragi’s entire body like V*nom.

“Gugu-beop-gu, looking this way.”

“Neeeeeit.”

‘Drug-induced hypnosis, brainwashing, training… biological modification… holy moly.’

Seeing her pushing the limits of insanity, I could feel that I needed to stop Griyanar’s rampage at this point.